This report covers the contribution of Alan Wurtzel, NBC Universal President/Research & Media Development, to the 4A's Annual Leadership conference, in which he calls for a renewed industry effort to achieve cross-platform media metrics. View Summary

This report covers the contribution of Alan Wurtzel, NBC Universal President/Research & Media Development, to the 4A's Annual Leadership conference, in which he calls for a renewed industry effort to achieve cross-platform media metrics. He criticises its indifference to date, believing that the prospect of cross-media data is no nearer that it was five years ago, which will cause real problems for the media industry. "If you can't measure something, you can't sell it," he says.

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From Prime Time to My Time - Integrating media audience measurment

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Andrew Green, Warc Exclusive, From Prime Time to My Time, 2010, pp. 164-171

In the final chapter of From Prime Time to My Time, Andrew Green discusses how the methods of audience measurement covered in the preceding chapters can be integrated. View Summary

In the final chapter of From Prime Time to My Time, Andrew Green discusses how the methods of audience measurement covered in the preceding chapters can be integrated. An overview of research into multi-media techniques is presented, including syndicated single-source research and custom single-source surveys.

Reporting from ad:Tech Chicago 2009, Geoffrey Precourt, WARC's U.S. editor, covers a session on 360-degree marketing by Elva Lewis, Procter & Gamble's associate director of corporate marketing. Lewis argues that P&G is "one of the biggest and most siloed companies in the world", presenting unique challenges when it comes to understanding its customers. Currently, the FMCG giant's communications target around half of the potential U.S. audience base of 200 million people. The company's former marketing director, Jim Stengel, emphasised the importance of understanding the "who", the "what" and the "how" of the purchase process, but, until now, only the first of these criteria had been truly met, she added. However, by aggregating this information, and taking advantage of the scale of its operations, in a single-source database, P&G will now "be able to understand, for the first time, the individual. We'll know who she is. We'll know what she cares about at P&G."

Holistic measurement is the subject of intense interest for all constituencies in the communications industry globally. View Summary

Holistic measurement is the subject of intense interest for all constituencies in the communications industry globally. At its 2009 Audience Measurement 4.0 Conference, the ARF, assembled a panel anchored by Giovanni Fabris, to discuss an evaluation by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) of the potential of a holistic program. This article provides new insight from a WFA review of global holistic measurement initiatives in progress in several countries outside the U.S..

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Is There Life After Apollo?

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Stephan Loerke, ANA Magazine, December 2008, pp. 58-59

Stephan Loerke, WFA managing director, argues in this 2008 article that accountability remains a top priority for marketers. View Summary

Stephan Loerke, WFA managing director, argues in this 2008 article that accountability remains a top priority for marketers. He adds that the adoption of industry-wide metrics for media audience measurement - incorporating holistic, consumer-centric approaches - remains crucial. The WFA is pushing for this outcome through its global WFA Blueprint scheme. It found recently that 50% of the world's largest ad markets have initiatives running that fulfil some or all of Blueprint's criteria. Loerke also argues that good measurement helps to solve the problems posed to advertisers by the media fragmentation brought about by the online revolution.

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The WFA Blueprint: Everyone gains from evolving media measurement

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Robert Dreblow, Warc Exclusive, November 2008

This paper argues the case for the industry-wide development of a consumer-centric approach to media audience measurement, as advocated by the WFA's Blueprint initiative. View Summary

This paper argues the case for the industry-wide development of a consumer-centric approach to media audience measurement, as advocated by the WFA's Blueprint initiative. Despite the termination of Project Apollo in the US, results of a WFA survey still found development of, or interest in, such audience measurement in 17 countries, spanning three broad approaches: Hub (e.g. in France); Single-source (e.g. Project Apollo and Media Monitor in Italy); and Hybrid (e.g. the UK's IPA TouchPoints). The benefits of such new approaches to media audience measurement for advertisers, media owners and agencies are discussed.

Agent-based modelling is essential to measure advertising effects in today's environment of fragmented media channels, interactive and social media. Traditional causal models will not work with interactive media and social networks, as the effects they provide is simply too complex to grasp from aggregated data. The process of interaction is a multiple probability chain, perhaps combining TV and online influences which are interdependent; this can only be dealt with by using individual-level data. Agent-based modelling works at the individual level, with individuals given "lifestyles" and characteristics based on survey data. The data set is analogous to single-source data, and has been found to correspond exactly to reach and frequency builds in the real world. A simulated social network has also been created to represent word-of-mouth and other interactive behaviours, since the process is so different from that which creates an advertising effect.

This article discusses the value to marketers of pure single-source data (such as Project Apollo), and that the need for accountability, at a time of increasing media fragmentation, is driving interest in such devices. View Summary

This article discusses the value to marketers of pure single-source data (such as Project Apollo), and that the need for accountability, at a time of increasing media fragmentation, is driving interest in such devices. Crucially, single source is the only way in which it is possible to observe the ability of specific ads to increase or maintain sales against competition, or increase the probability of the brand being purchased, even when (as in most established markets most of the time) there is no aggregate-level sales change. Project Apollo, a joint venture between Arbitron and Nielsen with investment by seven leading advertisers, is described. Single-source has the capacity to provide hard data, not available otherwise, to answer a wide range of marketing planning questions, including: whether ads are working, and for how long; buyer behaviour and loyalty, and how it is influenced by advertising; media effectiveness and synergy; targeting and scheduling (based on purchase behaviour rather than demographics); and other influences such as price, promotions, outlets, personal characteristics of shoppers etc.

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The Rocky Road to Single Source

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Rick Watrall, Marketing NPV, Volume 4, Issue 3, 2007

The ability to funnel all media behavior into a single data source is considered the Holy Grail among media buyers and planners. View Summary

The ability to funnel all media behavior into a single data source is considered the Holy Grail among media buyers and planners. The increased efficiencies gained from measuring every message your customers are exposed to - across all media - and what they did as a result of that exposure holds great promise for media buyers and planners. However, despite several initiatives, such as Project Apollo, that are seeking to move forward in this area, a number of obstacles remain, including an inability to link data in a standardised way; media fragmentation; a myopic view of the currency; and sampling limitations. Until these issues are resolved, the Grail must remain elusive.

In this article, Andrew Roberts, of TNS, and Lucy Bristow, market insight controller for Sky Media, describe how, using single-source data (made up of the Skyview panel and TNS Worldpanel overlap), they identified households of 'ad responders'. View Summary

In this article, Andrew Roberts, of TNS, and Lucy Bristow, market insight controller for Sky Media, describe how, using single-source data (made up of the Skyview panel and TNS Worldpanel overlap), they identified households of 'ad responders'. This segment develops purchasing patterns that correlate with ad viewing patterns, and the data they provide can then be used to develop TV buying strategies that target ad responders in a particular market.

Joe Mandese, in his regular column from the US, looks behind the scenes of Wal-Mart's recent appointment of Draft FCB (a newly fused agency combining direct response and brand advertising expertise) and Carat (for media and marketing mix modelling). Add to this Wal-Mart's sponsorship of Project Apollo, the single source research system, and Mandese deduces that big retailers are in need of understanding consumers just as much as big manufacturers are.

Geoff Wicken, TGI global product development director at BMRB, describes the TGI Global Socio-Economic Levels (SEL), a multi-country classification scheme that links together surveys possessing their own national systems. It does not replace indigenous classifications of social position, but by using a points-scoring system based on individuals' educational achievement and ownership of selected durables, provides a global system for planners to make direct comparisons across international markets.

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Does television advertising work?

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Ivor Millman, Admap, December 2005, Issue 467, pp. 20-23

In the UK single-source panel data experiments have been used to correlate TV advertising exposure and buying behaviour since the early 1960's. View Summary

In the UK single-source panel data experiments have been used to correlate TV advertising exposure and buying behaviour since the early 1960's. Ivor Millman, research advisor at ITV, reports on lessons learnt from data collected between 1996 and 2003 (especially tvWORKS 2001-3), mainly for fmcg grocery products. His conclusions support TV advertising, but also illustrate the complexity of isolating effects.

Dr Roberta McConochie, a director of Arbitron Inc, argues that current media measurement methods are failing to cope with declining consumer cooperation, conservative media owners (still preferring traditional diary records) and advertisers and agencies wanting more complete measures of media usage, and data to help determine advertising accountability. She describes Project Apollo, a joint venture of Arbitron, VNU and Proctor & Gamble, to address these issues in a unified way with a household panel using PPM (portable people meters), Nielsen Homescan and other survey techniques.

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Will These New Technologies Simplify Measuring Marketing Effectiveness?

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Marketing NPV, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2005

This article discusses the VNU/Arbitron 'Project Apollo', which uses portable people meters (PPMs) to pick up encoded messages, combined with barcode scanning of purchases, to deliver single-source data. View Summary

This article discusses the VNU/Arbitron 'Project Apollo', which uses portable people meters (PPMs) to pick up encoded messages, combined with barcode scanning of purchases, to deliver single-source data. This technique is then compared with the in-store 'Cart Companion' (internet plus loyalty card) system being tested by the East Coast grocer Stop & Shop.

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How P&G is changing the way you market

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Joe Mandese, Admap, December 2004, Issue 456, pp. 11-11

In his regular comment on the U.S. advertising scene, Joe Mandese discusses the two big marketing initiatives taken by Proctor & Gamble in 2004. View Summary

In his regular comment on the U.S. advertising scene, Joe Mandese discusses the two big marketing initiatives taken by Proctor & Gamble in 2004. Firstly, their championing of ‘a channel neutral approach to communications planning’; then their commitment to a single-source marketing measurement system.

Tony Regan, founding partner of Nylon (WPP’s specialist communications planning business), reviews cross-channel research from a planner’s point of view. Using the Account Planning Group’s book ‘The Communications Challenge’ (Jan. 2004) as his starting point, he describes industry developments and efforts at melding econometrics and proprietary/single source approaches. This is a comprehensive and timely survey of the state of play in the UK at the end of 2004.

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The future of fusion

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Tony Jarvis, Admap, October 2004, Issue 454, pp. 123-124

Tony Jarvis, chairman of the ARF blue ribbon committee who produced the ‘Guidelines for Data Integration’, looks at the value and future of single source data, fusion and data integration. View Summary

Tony Jarvis, chairman of the ARF blue ribbon committee who produced the ‘Guidelines for Data Integration’, looks at the value and future of single source data, fusion and data integration. He quotes the views and opinions of committee members.

Colin McDonald and Rachel Kennedy investigate the majority of marketing campaigns - those which seem to have little or no effect on sales or share. View Summary

Colin McDonald and Rachel Kennedy investigate the majority of marketing campaigns - those which seem to have little or no effect on sales or share. They argue that because repertory buying behaviour is predictable and stable in established markets, advertising cannot be expected to promote dramatic sales growth; but this does not mean it isn’t working. Usually advertising’s job is to get, and keep, the brand salient and part of the buyer’s repertoire of trusted, customary names. This requires a different approach to research, and more sensitive analysis.

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Media targeting

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Colin McDonald, Admap, May 2004, Issue 450, pp. 13-14

In this Best Practice article, Colin McDonald explains how to use single-source data, such as the TGI and media-product panel data. View Summary

In this Best Practice article, Colin McDonald explains how to use single-source data, such as the TGI and media-product panel data. As usual there is a thorough and up to date bibliography on the subject.

Arie den Boon and Suzanne Bruin argue that proper management of communications requires continuous and immediate feedback of media and creative performance; and, in Holland, this is now possible using web research. View Summary

Arie den Boon and Suzanne Bruin argue that proper management of communications requires continuous and immediate feedback of media and creative performance; and, in Holland, this is now possible using web research. They explain the Daphne model of communication (Dynamic Advertisng Performance) – which bears comparison with John Phillip Jones’s STAS model – and show how its application has led to better decisions.

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Communication-receptive planning in Europe

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Geoff Wicken, Admap, December 2003, Issue 445, pp. 35-38

Geoff Wicken, TGI global development at BMRB, describes a new segmentation analysis based on attitudes to media and advertising. View Summary

Geoff Wicken, TGI global development at BMRB, describes a new segmentation analysis based on attitudes to media and advertising. This provides 6 segments whose 'receptiveness to advertising' can be taken into account when planning media and communication. The analysis has been conducted in 15 European countries, and (as demonstrated with a Nike example) represents a new way of targeting consumers and looking at media.

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5 steps to effective frequency

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Lisa Beaumont, Admap, December 2003, Issue 445, pp. 23-26

Lisa Beaumont, head of media services at TNS, shows how single-source panel data can improve media planning, especially in the area of optimal flighting patterns. View Summary

Lisa Beaumont, head of media services at TNS, shows how single-source panel data can improve media planning, especially in the area of optimal flighting patterns. She describes five steps in the media planning process, and illustrates how following the process can produce a bespoke plan based on the planner’s experience and research evidence.

This profound paper examines the relationship between advertising and purchasing using a logistic regression model. View Summary

This profound paper examines the relationship between advertising and purchasing using a logistic regression model. Using single source data and an adstock calculation 18 product categories and 89 fmcg brands were studied to estimate the optimum retention rate (an expression of how much consumers remember from the past) and a brand's half life (an expression of periods, in this case days, before advertising has had half of its effect). Results of the 19 product groups show wide variations and the authors report similar variations within brands within product categories. This study is compared with Goerlich's finding (Admap, December 2001).

This paper presents the first cross-media results from Arbitron's Portable People Meter trial in the Wilmington Radio Metro portion of the Philadelphia DMA. View Summary

This paper presents the first cross-media results from Arbitron's Portable People Meter trial in the Wilmington Radio Metro portion of the Philadelphia DMA. Early data from the small-scale panel of 250 persons suggest important variations in cross-media duplication between radio and television - both by daypart and by demo. In particular, Persons 35+ show greater exclusive loyalty to television than younger persons in both morning and evening dayparts. Conversely, Persons 18 - 34 show somewhat higher cross-media, radio-TV duplication than the older panelists. These results suggest that differentiated cross-media planning for demos and times could improve the effectiveness and efficiency of buying and of bottom-line ROI. Moreover, PPM'S actual multi-week reach accumulation could put radio on par with current TV planning, where reach is considered on the basis of build through consecutive weeks and through different vehicle combinations. Results also point to methods-related issues, such as audience definition, that will require further research, industry discussion, and analysis of the unique, potentially beneficial approach of Portable People Meter measurement. The debates that PPM inspires could impact the relative levels of audience delivery which in turn affect the business of media as well as advertisers' expectations of media's ROL Thus PPM provides the occasion for revisiting the essential issues of media business.